And blunt the fenfe, and fit it for a fcull Of folid proof, impenetrably dull. Inftant when dipt, away they wing their flight, 20 Where Brown and Mears unbar the gates of Light, Demand new Bodies, and in Calf's array Rush to the world, impatient for the day. Millions and millions on these banks he views, Thick as the stars of night, or morning dews, 25 As thick as bees o'er vernal blossoms fly, As thick as eggs at Ward in Pillory.

Wond'ring he gaz'd: When lo! a Sage appears, By his broad fhoulders known, and length of ears, Known by the band and suit which Settle wore, 30 (His only fuit) for twice-three years before:

REMARKS

VERSE 20. Brown and Mears.] Bookfellers, Printers for Tib. bald, Mrs. Haywood, or any body The Allegory of the fouls of the Dull coming forth in the form of Books, and being let abroad in vaft numbers by Bookfellers, is fufficiently intelligible.

VERSE 26. Ward in Pillory.] John Ward of Hackney, Efq, Mem ber of Parliament, being convicted of Forgery, was firft expelled the Houfe, and then fentenc'd to the Pillory on the 17th of Feb. 1727. Mr. Curl looks upon the mention of fuch a Gentleman in a Satire, as a great act of Barbarity. Key to the Dun. 3d. Edit. p. 16. And another Author thus reafons upon it. Durgen, 8°. pag. 11, 12 How unworthy is it of Chriftian Charity to animate the rabble to abufe a worthy man in fuch a fituation? It was in vain! he had no Eggs "thrown at him; his Merit preferv'd him. What cou'd move the Poet thus to mention a brave Sufferer, a gallant Prifoner, expos'd to the view of all mankind! It was laying afide his Senfes, it was committing a Crime for which the Law is defisient not to punish him! nay a Crime which Man can scarce forgive, nor Time efface! Nothing furely could have induced him but being bribed to it "by a great Lady," (to whom this brave, honeft, worthy Gentle man was guilty of no offence but Forgery proved in open Court, &c.)

.

IMITATIONS.

VERSE 20. Unbar the gates of Light.]

VERSE 25. Millions and millions-Thick as the Stars, &c.J

Quam multa in fylvis autumni frigore primo

Lapfa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alio

Quam mulia glomerantur aves, &c.

Milton

Virg

35

All as the veft, appear'd the wearer's frame,
Old in new state, another yet the fame.
Bland and familiar as in life, begun

greater Son.

Oh born to fee what none can fee awake! ·
Behold the wonders of th' Oblivious Lake.
Thou, yet unborn, haft touch'd this facred fhores
The hand of Bavius drench'd thee o'er and o'er..
But blind to former, as to future Fate,
40 What mortal knows his pre-existent state?
Who knows how long, thy tranfmigrating foul-
Did from Baotian to Baotian roll?

How many Dutchmen fhe vouchfaf'd to thrid ?
How many ftages thro' old Monks she rid-?
45 And all who fince, in mild benighted days,
Mix'd the Owl's ivy with the Poet's bays?

REMARKS.

VERSE 28. And length of Ears.] This is a fophifticated reading. think I may venture to affirm all the Copyifts are mistaken here: I believe I may fay the fame of the Criticks; Dennis, Oldmixon, Welfed, have pafs'd it in fiience: I have always ftumbled at it, and wonder'd how an error fo manifeft could efcape fuch accurate perfons? I dare affert it proceeded originally from the inadvertency of fome Tranfcriber, whofe head run on the Pillory mention'd two lines before: It is therefore amazing that Mr Curl himself would overlook it Yet that Scholiaft takes not the leaft notice hereof. That the learned Mift alfo read it thus, is plain, from his ranging this paffage among tirote in which our author was blamed for perfonal-Satire on a Man's Face (whereof doubtless he might take the Ear to be a part;) So likewife Concanen, Ralph, the Flying-Post, and all the Herd of Com mentators, Tuta armenta fequuntur.

A very little Sagacity (which all thefe Gentlemen therefore wanted) will reftore to us the true fenfe of the Poet, thus,

By his broad fhoulders known, and length of years. See how eafy a shange of one fingle letter! That Mr. Settle was old is most certain, but he was (happily) a ftranger to the Pillory. This Note partly Mr. . THEOBALD, partly SCRIBLERUS.

VERSE 42. Did from Baotian, &c.] See the Remark on Book 1. N. 23.

IMITATIONS.

VERSE 46. Mix'd the Owl's Ivy with the Poet's Bays] Virg. Ec.

As man's mæanders to the vital spring

Roll all their tydes, then back their circles bring Or whirligigs, twirl'd round by skilful fwain, 50 Suck the thread in, then yield it out again: All nonfenfe thus, of old or modern date, Shall in thee centre, from thee circulate. For this, our Queen unfolds to vifion true Thy mental eye, for thou haft much to view : 55 Old fcenes of glory, times long caft behind, Shall firft recall'd, run forward to thy mind; Then stretch thy fight o'er all her rifing reign, And let the paft and future fire thy brain.

Afcend, this hill, whofe cloudy point commands6 Her boundless Empire over feas and lands.

65

See round the Poles where keener fpangles fhine,
Where spices smoke beneath the burning Line,
(Earth's wide extreams) her fable flag display'd;
And all the nations cover'd in her shade!

Far Eastward caft thine eye, from whence the Sun
And orient Science at a birth begun.

One man immortal all that pride confounds,

He, whofe long Wall the wand'ring Tartar bounds.

REMARK S.

VERSE 61, 62. See round the Poles, &c. Almoft the whole Southern and Northern Continent wrapt in Ignorance.

VERSE 65.1 Our Author favours the opinion that all Sciences came from the Eaftern Nations..

IMITATIONS:

VERSE 53. For this, our Queen unfolds to vifion true

The mental eye, for thou haft much to view.] ·

This has a refemblance to that paffage in Milton, l. 11, where the Angel,

To nobler fights from Adam's eye remov'd

The film, then purg'd with Euphrafie and Rue

The visual nerve For he had much to fee.

There is a general allufion in what follows to that whole paffages

Heav'ns! what a pyle ? whole ages perish there: 70 And one bright blaze turns Learning into air.

75

Thence to the South extend thy gladden'd eyes;
There rival flames with equal glory rise,
From shelves to shelves fee greedy Vulcan roll,.
And lick up all their Phyfick of the Soul.

How little, mark! that portion of the ball,
Where, faint at beft, the beams of Science fall.
Soon as they dawn, from Hyperborean skies,
Embody'd dark, what clouds of Vandals rife !
Lo where Mootis fleeps, and hardly flows
80 The freezing Tanais thro' a waste of Snows,
The North by myriads pours her mighty fons,
Great nurse of Goths, of Alans, and of Huns.
See Alaric's ftern port, the martial frame
Of Genferic! and Attila's dread name!
85 See, the bold Oftrogoths on Latium fall;
See, the fierce Vifigoths on Spain and Gaul.
See, where the Morning gilds the palmy fhore,
(The foil that arts and infant letters bore)
His conqu'ring tribes th Arabian prophet draws,
90. And faving Ignorance enthrones by Laws.

See Chriftians, Jews, one heavy fabbath keep;
And all the Western World believe and fleep.
Lo Rome herself, proud mistress now no more
Of arts, but thund'ring agaaft Heathen lore;

REMARK S.

VERSE 69. Chi Ho-am-ti, Emperor of China, the fame who built the great wall between China and Tartary, deftroyed all the books and learned men of that empire.

VERSE 73, 74.3 The Caliph, Omar I. having conquer'd Ægypt, caus'd his General to burn the Ptolomaan library, on the gates of which was this infcription, Medicina Anima, The Phyfick of the Soul

VERSE 88. The Soil that arts and infant letters bore.] Phenicia, Syria, &c. where Letters are laid to have been invented. In thefe Countries Mahomet began his Conquefts.

VERSE 94. Thund'ring against Heathen lore.] A ftrong inftance of this pious rage is plac'd to Pope Gregory's account. John of Salisbury

gives

95 Her gray-hair'd Synods damning books unread,
And Bacon trembling for his brazen head:
Padua with fighs beholds her Livy burn;
And ev'n th' Antipodes Vigilius mourn.

See, the Cirque falls! th unpillar'd Temple nods! 100 Streets pav'd with Heroes, Tyber choak'd with Gods! Till Peter's Keys fome chriften'd Jove adorn, And Pan to Mofes lends his Pagan horn; See graceless Venus to a Virgin turn'd, Or Phidias broken, and Apelles burn'd.

105

Behold yon' Ifle, by Palmers, Pilgrims trod, Men bearded, bald, cowl'd, uncowl'd, shod, unshod, Peel'd, patch'd, and pyebald, linfey-woolfey brothers, Grave mummers fleeveless fame, and shirtless others.

REMARKS.

gives a very odd Encomium to this Pope, at the fame time that he mentions one of the ftrangeft effects of this excefs of zeal in him. Doctor fanctiffimus ille Gregorius, qui melleo pradicationis imbre totam rigavit & inebriavit ecclefiam, non modo Mathefin juffit ab auta; fed, ut iraditur a majoribus, incendio dedit probate lectionis fcripta, Palatinus quacunque tenebat Apollo. And in another place: Eertur beaus Gregorius bibliothecam combuffiffe gentilem, quo divina pagina gratior effet locus, & major authoritas, & diligentia ftudiofior. Defiderius Archbishop of Vienna was sharply reproved by him for teaching Grammar and Literature, and explaining the Poets; Becaufe (fays this Pope) in una fe ore cum Jovis laudibus, Chrifti laudes non capiunt: Et quam grave nes fandumque fit, Epifcopis canere quod nec Laico religiofo conveniat, ipfe confidera. He is faid, among the reft, to have burn'd Livy; Quia in fuperftitionibus & facris Romanorum perpetuo verfatur. The fame Pope is accufed by Voffius and others of having caus'd the noble monuments of the old Roman magnificence to be destroyed, left thofe who came to Rome thou'd give more attention to Triumphal Arches, &c. than to Holy Things. BAYLE, Dia.

VERSE 101. 'Till Peter's Keys fome chriften'd Jove adorn, &c.] Af ter the Government of Rome devolved to the Popes, their zeal was for fome time exerted in demolishing the Heathen Temples and Statues, fo that the Goths fcarce deftroyed more Monuments of Antiquity out of Rage, than thefe out of Devotion. At length they fpar'd fome of the Temples by converting them to Churches, and fome of the Sta tues, by modifying them into images of Saints. In much later times, it was thought neceffary to change the Statues of Apollo and Pallas on the Tomb of Sannazarius, into David and Judith, the Lyre easily became a Harp, and the Gorgon's Head turn'd to that of Holofernes.